Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball

Dead or Alive
Xtreme Beach Volleyball is bound to inspire a lot of hot-tempered
emotions in some people, not least of all Eurogamer's resident
moral guardian Rob Fahey, whose rather venomous
first impressions piece left a lot
of people either sighing in accordance or seething with rage. Then
again, any game that aims to make money by giving blokes a brace of
virtual Barbie dolls under the guise of a sports game will
obviously polarise opinion.

But we've spent a lot of time with it now, and it seems that the
more you play it, the easier it is to appreciate why you should
play it. It's still a very simple game at its core, based around
some pretty basic activities (card games, hopping, volley-pong,
etc), but the sheer number of collectibles and their inconsistent
availability will have grown-up Pokémaniacs foaming at the
mouth, and the orgy of on-screen titillation will no doubt do the
same for some of the rest of us.

As one of eight misled ladies, lured to Zack Island under the
pretence of a DOA fighting tournament, the idea is quite simply to
build up a collection of crap whilst cruising the sun-drenched
tropical plains in babe-ridden surroundings. There are all sorts of
knickknacks spread around the game's main boutiques (Accessory
Shop, Sports Shop and Zack Of All Trades), with all manner of
skimpy garments (fluffy-tailed swimsuits, anyone?) flanked by more
obscure items like Uzis (er, yes). As you play volleyball, compete
in mini-games or gamble in the casino, you'll earn island currency
which can be splurged on these various spoils, and often you'll
also find yourself rewarded for a hard day's volleying with a
DVD-style extra (videos of old DOA games, obscure literature and so
forth).

Subtlety to rival Playboy

However, pretty much every gamer who clicked through to this
page is preoccupied with the graphics, and we're not afraid to
admit how lovely they are. Whether or not you find oodles of
bronzed flesh a bit tasteless, you can't fail to be impressed with
the animation, which covers pretty much every inch. Each lass
carries herself slightly differently - some, like Kasumi, have a
sort of delicate grace, whilst others like videogame-loving Tina
are a bit more headstrong and brutal. And when they're not leaping
around the volleyball court with seamless realism, they're
adjusting their bikinis, rolling around on deckchairs sunning
themselves and hopping across swimming pools. Ignoring the question
of how "sad" it is, we haven't seen much more realistic character
movement in a sports game, or indeed any other game. To put it into
perspective, the CG cut scenes look less realistic.

And then there are the environments. In stark contrast to the
elegance of the ladies, some (like the casino) have a pre-rendered,
Resident Evil-esque feel to them, and some are basically just fancy
parallax scrolling. The jungle court, for example, feels totally
out of place. The barefoot, swimsuit-clad ladies of DOA feel
somewhat alien as they prance around on a floor of fallen greenery,
with several rows of lush foliage offering up the illusion of
depth. Other stages though, like the many beaches, either do a
better job of masking the effect or don't even rely on it - and
like Sega's Beach Spikers and Virtua Fighter 4 snow stages, the way
the sand parts beneath each of the ballers' feet is a nice touch
which adds plenty to the overall aesthetic.

But it's the little details which make the difference, like the way
Tina stretches her quads at the start of a match, or Hitomi leans
on her knees before receiving a serve, and the emotive
juxtaposition of heartfelt celebration and frustration. It may be a
very voyeuristic game, with L selecting various pervy camera angles
and R zooming in unashamedly on the "vital areas", but Tecmo has
had no problem creating some of the most sumptuous, lifelike
character animation ever witnessed.

The audio side of things complements the game's aesthetic admirably
to boot. Tecmo hasn't bothered to change the Japanese voiceovers,
which is vastly preferable in our minds to cheesy American nobodies
vomiting the uninspired scripting at one another, and there's a
custom soundtrack option - which, unless you like Spice Girls
B-sides, B*witched and the Baha Men's other songs, you'll want to
be using.

The game bit

DOAX's main problem though is how much like a tech demo it
feels at times. Despite the complexity of the visuals, the actual
volleyball is surprisingly simplistic, and the inclusion of a
bizarre float-hopping mini-game and a casino full of slot machines
and card games is disconcerting. Windows 3.11 onwards has come with
a perfectly decent complement of card games, ta, and if we wanted
to play Blackjack with girly playing cards, we'd buy some.

Out on the courts, it's equally underwhelming to start with.
Whereas Beach Spikers took many hours to learn and many more to
perfect, Tecmo is happy with receive and shot buttons and not much
else. On the defensive side of things, B will tee it up for your
partner and A will return directly, and on the offensive, B
performs a looping shot (useful for beating jumping blocks) and A
performs a spike. The camera is as peculiarly unconcerned with
giving you the best view as Beach Spikers', but on the whole the
game starts and ends with setting the ball and spiking it, so it
isn't so much of a problem as it was with Sega's more intricate
baller.

The subtlety, they say, is in the timing. If you go for a spike,
holding the analogue stick and hitting A can produce a wide variety
of attacks depending on the precise split-second you do it. However
in practise, you'll find that spikes are as spikes do -
concentrating on the most effective timing is a bit silly when 90
per cent of the time you'll see it returned. You're better off
trying to overwhelm the opposition by receiving skilfully, or
faking out their blocks with a looping shot.

In contrast to spiking itself, it's usually pretty easy to block or
receive effectively. Stand in a reasonably empty bit of court with
your teammate on the opposite side, and hit the B button as soon as
an opponent spikes and your character will receive comfortably or
dive to make up the difference. If you dive, most of the time you
won't get up quickly enough for your teammate to set your spike, so
the idea is to receive comfortably, set and then spike effectively.
Given the ease of control, rallies can last for stupid amounts of
time, and you'll feel genuinely aggrieved or exhilarated depending
on the outcome. And not just because of the sexy ladies…

For us, the volleyball in DOAX is simple enough to pick up and play
that you'll treat it a bit like a pickup game of FIFA or NHL.
What's more, winning is worth plenty of cash and if you really do
want that skimpy, gun-holstered spotted white bikini or a purple
one-piece then there's even more incentive.

Eager playmates

One of the key reasons that the game is so accessible is the
quality of the AI - even if it's not immediately obvious. As you
start to play more and more, you'll have to bribe your fellow
holiday-goers to partner with you, and work hard to win those games
or you may end up partner-less, but on the court as well there's a
definite issue of morale to contend with. It's not just that you
lose composure after losing a couple of points either - it's the
circumstances that make the difference. If your teammate slams a
perfectly good spike into the net, or you completely misjudge a
lofted serve, you may well find the next serve banging into your
slumped head to compound your misery, unless you keep moving, and,
likewise, a particularly cogent duo will sometimes be reinvigorated
enough to overcome early deficits.

There's a very noticeable difficulty curve too. As you start out,
serves are underarm, a lot of points go awry on both sides of the
net and things are generally sloppy. By the end of your first
virtual week on Zack Island though, served balls are being thrown
into the air and whipped across the net like tennis balls, and the
level of skill on both sides makes for some intense rallies.
Coupled with the way morale is handled, it's quite compelling - as
long as you're actually after the next swimsuit or DOA2 trailer.

However, good though the AI is, we're certainly happy to take issue
with the idea that DOAX encourages 'notions of sisterhood', which
is an argument we've seen bandied around. We seriously doubt that
young ladies anywhere will be enticed by this bunch of scantily
clad, bribe-driven, twenty-something bimbos whose response to
failure is a petulant tantrum. If that's the world of women today
then I'm glad I moved to Brighton. Anybody who tries to argue the
merits of DOAX as a sort of virtual feminist retreat either has a
loose grip on reality, or a firm grip on his penis.

Climax

As we said at the start, DOAX was always going to polarise opinion,
but ultimately the entire reward structure is based around the
collection of skimpy clothing, accessories and peculiar
merchandise. If you harbour kleptomaniacal tendencies and find
curvy polygons racier than we do, then the increasingly repetitive
bouts of volleyball and weakness in the rest of the package won't
bother you. However, if the screenshots peppered around this page
don't summon a nod from the little general, and all you wanted was
a decent volleyball sim, then we implore you to go elsewhere. DOAX
is the mindless, arcade alternative to Beach Spikers, and some
semblance of AI and mini-game distractions aren't enough to justify
£40 - only a frank admission of wankerdom really manages it.

3
/
10

Read the Eurogamer.net reviews policyDead or Alive Xtreme Beach VolleyballTom BramwellJust another kick in the balls for women in gaming? An apologia for serial masturbation? What?2003-03-25T09:00:00+00:00310